Cape Town Hospital Installs Filtration Plant

The Life Vincent Pallotti Hospital is preparing for Day Zero and pushing to become more sustainable

The Life Vincent Pallotti Hospital of Cape Town, South Africa, has installed a water filtration plant, making the hospital the city’s first private healthcare facility to install a water filtration plant in compliance with the city’s regulations. As Day Zero–the day Cape Town runs out of water–approaches, the hospital feared they would not be able to treat patients so they took strides to become more sustainable by installing their own water filtration plant.

The plant pulls water from two boreholes and the hospital reports the primary treatment involves iron removal and uses ultra-filtration modules for the final step. Hospital administrators report the hospital is usually at 80% capacity and is able to accommodate 300 patients in its 124 medical suites.

“We’re going to produce 200,000 liters a day, which is quite significant. It’s significantly more than we are currently using, because since we started this process we put in a number of processes to reduce our water consumptions,” Dr. Japie Du Toit, regional hospital manager, told Cape Talk. Dr. Japie Du Toit anticipates the filtration plant will yield 80% with only 20% waste.